The water in the glass you are holding right now*

has led a million lives.

It has survived.

Perhaps a splash or two

dashed once or twice

across Niagara Falls.

Or lay locked in the ice

of the first snowball you threw.

Or you’ll discover

this water once washed the hands of your

great-great-great grandmother.

Maybe it powered the leaves

of your favourite tree.

Or once was brewed as tea

or (forgive me)

kangaroo wee.

Perhaps it held the drops

that quenched the thirst

of the very first

triceratops.

Water goes nowhere and everywhere.

Water knows everything.

So it’s not such a leap

to think

you hold in your hand

a link

to every kind of wildness,

to every kind of person.

Drink deep.

*(Feel free to fetch one.)

© Kate Wakeling, from Cloud Soup, The Emma Press, 2021